SUMMARY
PaulThe Apostle Paul, originally known as Saul of Tarsus, was the author of several New Testament letters and the founder of many Christian communities. More depicts how, in the MessiahThe Messiah was the one who, it was believed, would come to free the people of Israel from bondage and exile. In Jewish thought the Messiah is the anticipated one who will come, as prophesied by Isaiah. In Christian thought Jesus of Nazareth is identified... More, we are being renewed daily in the midst of whatever we undergo in this life. As we sigh and groan in the “earthly tent” of our bodies, the Spirit produces within us a dwelling not made with human hands. Thus, whether we live or die, we can have confidence—walking by faith not sight and making it our aim to please God amidst whatever it is we are experiencing.
ANALYSIS
With this overflowing graceGrace is the unmerited gift of God's love and acceptance. In Martin Luther's favorite expression from the Apostle Paul, we are saved by grace through faith, which means that God showers grace upon us even though we do not deserve it. More in our hearts, we need not lose heart. Our outer self, that is, the self we present to the world around us, may be wasting away. At the same, however, our inner self, the core of who are, which lies in our union with the Messiah’s death and life, is being renewed daily (2 Corinthians 4:16; cf. Romans 12:1-2). Whatever momentary distress we might be experiencing is, in reality, producing within us an excess, or, more literally, a “hyperbole” upon “hyperbole” (Greek, hyperbole), of an “eternal weight of glory” (2 Corinthians 4:17). But we fail to notice this when we are focusing solely on what can be “seen,” like the shining face of MosesProphet who led Israel out of Egypt to the Promised Land and received the law at Sinai. More, or its analogues—whether they be spiritual or secular—either in Paul’s time or in ours. We only become aware of this though when we attend to what we cannot see. In a previous passage, Paul gave two examples of things that he is referring to when he talks about the “unseen”—both the hope that gave Paul parrēsia, the confidence to speak truthfully, on one side, and the communion Moses had with the Lord and the people as he conversed with the Lord and, in turn, spoke the Lord’s word to the people, on another (2 Corinthians 4:18a; cf. 2 Corinthians 3:12-13). Why is this the case? Because, Paul explains, what we can see with our eyes is merely temporary, but what we cannot see—such as hope and communion with God and one another—is eternal (2 Corinthians 4:18b).
Paul further develops these themes with a range of biblical themes and images. Referring to Solomon’s prayer for WisdomWisdom encompasses the qualities of experience, knowledge, and good judgment. The Old Testament book of Proverbs, which sometimes invokes a Woman as the personification of Wisdom, is a collection of aphorisms and moral teachings. Along with other biblical passages, it teaches, "The fear of the... More, he compares our bodies, which are vulnerable to decay, to an “earthly tent” (2 Corinthians 5:1a; Wisdom 9:15). Yet he also affirms that, even if this earthly tent is destroyed, we have a “building from God”—one not made with human hands, since God, as the creator and source of all things, cannot be contained on earth and even the highest heaven (2 Corinthians 5:1b; cf. IsaiahIsaiah, son of Amoz, who prophesied in Jerusalem, is included among the prophets of the eighth century BCE (along with Amos, Hosea, and Micah)--preachers who boldly proclaimed God's word of judgment against the economic, social, and religious disorders of their time. More 66:1-3). To describe the tension of living between these two residences—in our earthly tent and in our building from God—Paul uses a word with a double meaning: to “groan” or to sigh when experiencing pain (Greek, stenazō as verb, stenagmon as noun) (2 Corinthians 5:2-4). On the one hand, it depicts an expression of pain—such as the Israelites’ “groaning” under their oppression in Egypt (Exodus 2:24); on the other, it can refer to the experience of giving birth, which although painful to undergo, nonetheless has a happy outcome (Genesis 3:16).
Paul has already informed the Corinthians that, in the Messiah, our bodies are “temples” of the HolyHoly is a term that originally meant set apart for the worship or service of God. While the term may refer to people, objects, time, or places, holiness in Judaism and Christianity primarily denotes the realm of the divine More Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19). Thus, it is not surprising that to describe our “groaning,” he adds to his residential metaphors, the activity of putting on and taking off clothing—an allusion not only to priestly vestments worn in the templeThe Jerusalem temple, unlike the tabernacle, was a permanent structure, although (like the tabernacle) it was a place of worship and religious activity. On one occasion Jesus felt such activity was unacceptable and, as reported in all four Gospels, drove from the temple those engaged... More, but also to our being “clothed” in the Messiah by an ongoing baptismJesus was baptized (literally, "dipped") in the Jordan River by John the Baptizer, at which time he was acclaimed from heaven as God's Son, the Beloved. Much later baptism became one of the sacraments of the Church, the action by which a person is incorporated... More into his death and life (2 Corinthians 5:2; Galatians 3:27). On one hand, he observes, we groan as we are caught in sinful and unjust patterns, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling (i.e., the Messiah)—so that when we have taken it off, we will not be found naked (2 Corinthians 5:2-3; cf. Genesis 3:7). On another, we groan under the burden of our mortality, wanting not to be unclothed but further clothed— so that what is mortal might be swallowed up by life (2 Corinthians 5:4; cf. 1 Corinthians 15:53-56 and Isaiah 25:8).
God, and only God, is the one who produces all this “groaning” within us, giving birth within us to the “building” we have from God, even as we are in this “earthly tent” (2 Corinthians 5:4). And God does this through the Spirit of God, which we have been given as a pledge (arrabon) (2 Corinthians 5:5; cf. 2 Corinthians 1:22; Genesis 38:17-20). In Romans 8, Paul describes the work of the Holy Spirit in a similar fashion. The Spirit “groans” through us—amid not only our groans as we await adoption, but also the groans of all creation—giving birth to God’s purposes in our lives (Romans 8:18-28).
All of this gives us confidence, Paul avers, whether—continuing with the dwelling metaphor—we are at home in the body or at home with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:6-10). As he notes in other letters, we can be content whether we live or die (Philippians 1:21-24; Romans 14:7-9). He gives us two ways of being in the world that can give us confidence and contentment in whatever state we are in. The first is to “walk by faith, not sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). To exemplify what he means by this, he alludes to Jacob’s wrestling with an enigmatic figure at the River Jabbok—using the Greek word eidos (which can also mean “form” or “appearance”), which has been translated as “sight” in this phrase. In the SeptuagintThe Septuagint is a pre-Christian (third to first century BCE) Greek translation of the Jewish Scriptures. It is believed that the term Septuagint derives from the number of scholars-seventy (or seventy-two)-who reputedly did the work of translation. More, JacobThe son of Isaac and Rebekah, renamed Israel, became the father of the twelve tribal families. More used this word to name the place where he wrestled with what he called the “Form of God” (Eidos Theou), exclaiming after the harrowing experience, “I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved” (Genesis 32:30 NRS). The second way of being in the world that can give us confidence, regardless of what is happening to us, is simply to make it our aim to please God in whatever it is that we are doing (2 Corinthians 5:8-9; cf. Romans 12:1-2; Philippians 4:8). Ultimately, all of us will have the truth we have lived throughout our lives fully manifested before the judgment seat of the Messiah, where we each will bear the consequences of what we have done in our bodies—whether good or bad (2 Corinthians 5:10; Romans 14:10).
RELATED PASSAGES
Genesis 38:1-30 — Judah, Tamar, and the Pledge
Exodus 2:23-26 — God Noticed the Israelites’ Groaning under Oppression
1 Kings 8:14-66 — Solomon’s Prayer at the Dedication of the Temple
Isaiah 25:1-12 –The Banquet on God’s Holy Mountain
Isaiah 66:1-3 — God Cannot be Contained in Heaven or Earth
Wisdom 9:1-18 — Solomon’s Prayer for Wisdom
Acts 7:44-50 — Solomon and a House Not Made with Human Hands
1 Corinthians 15:46-53 — Imperishability, Immortality, and the Resurrection
Romans 8:18-28 — The Spirit Groaning amidst Creaturely Groans
Romans 12:1-2 — Present Your Bodies a Living Sacrifice
Romans 14:7-12 — Living and Dying to the Lord